Prime Minister Maliki lashes out at critics

SENS. CLINTON, LEVIN SCOLDED FOR COMMENTS

By James GlanzNew York Times

Posted:
08/27/2007 01:38:24 AM PDT

Updated:
08/27/2007 01:38:24 AM PDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki on Sunday extended his tongue-lashing of foreign politicians who have questioned his government, saying U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin needed to "start making sense again" after the senators, both Democrats, called for his ouster.

Maliki, who previously reacted with anger to President Bush's criticism of the Iraqi government's lack of political progress, also lashed out at the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who called for Maliki to be replaced in an interview that appeared on the Newsweek Web site Sunday.

But Maliki appeared to reach a new level of stridency with his reply to Clinton of New York and Levin of Michigan. In a news briefing that referred to the senators by name, Maliki said they had spoken "as if Iraq is one of their cities."

"Iraq is a sovereign country, and we will not allow anyone to talk about it as if it belongs to this country or that," Maliki said. He added a phrase that could be translated as indicating the senators ought to make sense again or should return to a logical path.

Later in the day, Maliki appeared to have calmed down as he went through a series of meetings and participated in a joint statement of broad political unity by two major Kurdish parties, two Shiite parties, including his Dawa Party, and a bloc led by Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni.

The White House, eager for signs of progress, welcomed the agreement.

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A spokeswoman, Emily Lawrimore, said the leaders' decision was "an important symbol of their commitment to work together for the benefit of all Iraqis."

In advance of the report on progress in Iraq by the U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, the statement appeared tailored to show that steps toward political unity had been taken.

The report by Crocker and Petraeus is widely expected to point to some advances on security and the economy, partly as a result of a U.S. troop increase. But the fractious government has made little progress in crucial areas such as laws regulating the development of Iraq's oil resources and governing the sharing of oil revenues.

Despite the promising signs Sunday, Iraq's political process remains all but completely stalled and Maliki's government has been gravely weakened by major defections in the past few weeks. In the most recent, the secular political alliance Iraqiya, led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, withdrew from the government Friday.

In an interview Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," Allawi said his alliance had "lost our faith in the capability of the current government of salvaging the country and moving forward.

"I don't see that we are getting closer to reconciliation," he said. "I don't see that we are getting closer to getting rid of militias. I am not seeing that we are getting closer to having an assertive policies, foreign policies, which would not allow Iran to intervene in Iraqi affairs."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Sunday that Maliki's government "is still pretty much a disaster" despite some progress made.

"It's a democratically elected government, and I don't think we can dictate to them," McConnell said. Nonetheless, McConnell said, senators from both parties agree the Shiite prime minister has been "a huge disappointment."